Data breach incident management and recovery

Ducktail social media marketing malware rears its head again

Use of the Ducktail infostealer, which first popped up in 2022 targeting Meta Business accounts, seems to be increasing Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Cyber world hails downfall of Qakbot trojan

A multinational law enforcement hacking operation disrupted the botnet infrastructure used to distribute the Qakbot trojan at the weekend, in a major setback for the cyber criminal underworld Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Zero-day that forced Barracuda users to bin kit was exploited by China

Mandiant has published details of how a Chinese threat actor targeted high-profile users of Barracuda Networks' Email Security Gateway appliances, including government agencies of interest to Beijing's intelligence goals Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Teenage Lapsus$ ringleader was responsible for crime spree, UK court rules

A court has ruled that Arion Kurtaj, allegedly a key player in the Lapsus$ cyber extortion syndicate, was responsible for the group’s year-long campaign of cyber attacks Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

St Helens Council in Merseyside hit by ransomware attack

St Helens Borough Council is investigating a suspected ransomware incident targeting its systems, and is advising residents to be on the alert for follow-on phishing attacks Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Cyber attacks in 2023 develop quicker as average dwell times plummet

The median attacker dwell time shrunk from 10 to eight days in the first seven months of 2023, and in the case of ransomware attacks it is down to just five days Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Singapore to bolster OT security capabilities

Cyber Security Agency of Singapore teams up with Dragos and the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to bolster the country’s OT security capabilities Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Clop’s MOVEit attacks drive ransomware volumes to record high

Such has been the scope of Clop’s activity since May that ransomware attack volumes have more than doubled year on year, according to the latest data Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Cyber attack on Aussie energy services firm may hit UK CNI

Energy One, an Australia-based supplier of tech services to the energy sector, is investigating the possibility that some UK customers may have been caught up in an ongoing cyber attack on its systems Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

NatWest customer calls bank’s handling of breach of his data ‘disgusting’

A second NatWest customer has contacted Computer Weekly after finding out from a whistleblower that his sensitive personal data has been in her home for 14 years Continue Reading

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• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

NCSC expands Cyber Incident Response service more widely

The NCSC has added a level to its CIR programme to enable more cyber attack victims to take advantage of the service, which offers access to assured incident response specialists Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Norfolk and Suffolk police hit by FoI-linked data breach

Latest UK police data breach relates to crime suspects, victims and witnesses across East Anglia, and comes just days after a similar incident at the Northern Irish service Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Online safety message failing to get through to women

The security community could be doing a lot more to make its advice and guidance more accessible to women, according to a study Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

US Cyber Board to probe cloud security after latest Exchange hack

CSRB review of cloud security comes in the wake of a major Chinese cyber attack on US government bodies orchestrated through Microsoft’s cloud services Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

PSNI investigating second breach after laptop stolen

Just hours after accidentally disclosing the personal details of 10,000 personnel, the Police Service of Northern Ireland has notified a second data breach after a police issue laptop and documents were stolen from a parked car Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Northern Irish police expose staff data in botched FoI response

Human error is being blamed for the leak of personally identifiable information on all serving officers and civilian staff at the Police Service of Northern Ireland Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

UK voter data hacked in cyber attack on election watchdog

An unknown threat actor who attacked the UK’s Electoral Commission had access to data on millions of UK voters for over a year, the watchdog has revealed Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Black Basta, Hive and Royal ransomware gangs may share real-world connection

At Black Hat USA, Sophos X-Ops researchers share data revealing potential connections between three active ransomware crews Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Microsoft fixes Azure flaw that was subject of researcher criticism

Microsoft has confirmed a potentially-dangerous flaw in the Azure platform has now been fully fixed, and moved to reassure customers that despite criticism it is committed to responsible disclosure and timely fixes Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Log4Shell, ProxyShell still among most widely exploited flaws

Statistics released by the collective Five Eyes cyber agencies reveals insight into the most exploited vulnerabilities of 2022, and unsurprisingly there are some old ‘friends’ on the list Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Scottish NHS trust ducks fine after staff shared patient data via WhatsApp

NHS Lanarkshire has been issued a formal reprimand by the ICO after staff members used WhatsApp to share patients’ personal data with one another Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Cozy Bear hijacks SME Microsoft 365 tenants in latest campaign

Microsoft shares intelligence on a newly observed Cozy Bear campaign that saw the APT take over genuine Microsoft 365 tenants and subvert them to try to phish its victims Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Microsoft attacked over ‘grossly irresponsible’ security practice

The CEO of Tenable has launched a scathing attack on Microsoft, asserting that the organisation is deliberately keeping its Azure cloud customers in the dark about dangerous vulnerabilities and accusing it of a culture of ‘toxic obfuscation’ Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Ivanti MDM users told to patch against two dangerous flaws

Users of Ivanti’s mobile device management platform have been warned to act now to patch two vulnerabilities that were chained by a threat actor in a series of cyber attacks on the Norwegian government Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

AI has a place in cyber, but needs effective evaluation

Organisations that don’t leverage AI-based security solutions will find themselves more vulnerable than those that do., but cyber pros still need to ensure they can effectively evaluate AI-enhanced tech to ensure it meets their use case Continue Reading

By

• Jack Chapman

Scottish university hit by Rhysida ransomware gang

Data allegedly stolen from the University of Western Scotland has been put up for sale on the dark web by a ransomware gang going by the name Rhysida Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

How Indian organisations are keeping pace with cyber security

Indian organisations are shoring up their defences to improve their cyber resilience amid intensifying cyber threats targeted at key sectors such as healthcare and logistics Continue Reading

By

• Pratima Harigunani

Cyber criminals pivot away from ransomware encryption

Cyber breaches that saw data theft and extortion without an encryption or ransomware component account for more and more incidents, in a possible indication that ransomware gangs are changing up their business models Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

AI-enhanced cyber has potential, but watch out for marketing hype

As AI is a hot topic right now, it is no surprise there are some cyber solutions coming to market that have been thrown together in haste, but that said, genuine AI-powered security products do exist and their abilities could yet prove transformative. Continue Reading

By

• Shailendra Parihar, Turnkey Consulting

US cyber breach reporting rules to have global impact

Organisations that operate as Foreign Private Issuers in the US will have to get to grips with strict new cyber breach reporting regulations handed down by the SEC in Washington Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Cyber attack on IT supplier hits two major ambulance trusts

Ambulance trusts serving millions across southern England have been hamstrung for the past week after a cyber attack took down their hosted patient records system Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Cisco, BT and others launch network security coalition

Network Resilience Coalition focuses on bringing together global expertise to improve data and network security Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Tetra radio users’ comms may have been exposed for years

A number of flaws in the encryption algorithms used in the secure Tetra radio communications standard have potentially left users exposed to snooping Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

CIO interview: Sean Green, University of East Anglia

In his role as director of digital and data at the University of East Anglia, Sean Green provides high-performance computing to researchers and manages the diverse needs of a campus with the characteristics of a small town, all while finding the time to study one of his passions Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Citrix NetScaler users told to patch new zero-day urgently

A vulnerability disclosed and patched last week by Citrix appears to be being exploited by China-backed threat actors as a zero-day, prompting warnings from government cyber bodies Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Security AI and automation may reduce cost of data breaches

Organisations that go all in on security AI and automation tend to incur lower financial costs when they experience a data breach incident, according to an IBM report Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Why cyber security should be part of your ESG strategy

The impact of data breaches and cyber threats on businesses, societies and the environment makes cyber security a key consideration in an environment, social and governance strategy Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Future Cyber Threats: The four ‘horsemen of the apocalypse’

How to deal with emerging security threats from deep fake humans to the end of secure encryption  Continue Reading

By

• Jim Tiller, CISO, Nash Squared

How the DSMA balances security and privacy with press freedom

In a world of information sharing and 24-hour news cycles, the Defence and Security Media Advisory committee have to balance national security and data privacy with freedom of the press Continue Reading

By

• Peter Ray Allison

BlackCat and Clop gangs both claim cyber attack on Estée Lauder

Cosmetics conglomerate Estée Lauder is experiencing operational disruption in the wake of a cyber attack that seems to involve two different cyber crime gangs Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Half of cyber pros engage in risky behaviour at work, report claims

Approximately 55% of security professionals say they have engaged in behaviours they would more usually advise against in the workplace, according to a report Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Microsoft issues new warning over Chinese cyber espionage

A newly uncovered Chinese espionage campaign exploited forged authentication tokens to access its victims’ email accounts, says Microsoft Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

One month after MOVEit: New vulnerabilities found as more victims are named

Five weeks after the mass MOVEit breach, new vulnerabilities in the file transfer tool are coming to light as the Clop cyber crime group continues to terrorise victims. But has the gang bitten off more than it can chew? Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Cozy Bear lures victims with used BMW 5 Series

A recent Cozy Bear campaign saw the Russian APT group pivot to exploiting an advert for a used car as it targeted diplomatic missions in Kyiv Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Whistleblower contacts NatWest customers affected by a decade-old data breach

Former worker says contacting the people affected by the data breach is her last resort after the bank and regulators appear satisfied that the sensitive data file is safe stored under her bed Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Over half of ANZ organisations hit by ransomware

Amid the rising ransomware threat, almost four in five organisations in ANZ expect to pay a ransom if they could recover data and business processes Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

BlackCat gang claims cyber attack on Barts NHS Trust

Investigations continue into a claim by the ALPHV/BlackCat ransomware gang that it has stolen 7TB of data from Barts NHS Trust in London Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

NHS data stolen in Manchester Uni ransomware attack

The ransomware gang behind the cyber attack on the University of Manchester appears to have got its hands on an NHS dataset being used by the university for research purposes Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

‘Shadow’ AI use becoming a driver of insider cyber risk

Off-the-books use of generative AI tools will inevitably lead to a costly, high-profile data breach for someone, but a little attention paid to appropriate data management policy can help mitigate the risk Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

A tenth of kids claim they could hack you

More and more young people are at risk of being drawn into cyber criminality, and parents must shoulder some of the blame, according to a report Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

ICO under fire for taking limited action over serious data breaches

The ICO has come under fire from lawyers and data protection specialists for just issuing written warnings to two public bodies over serious data breaches that placed people’s lives at risk Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Phishing and ransomware dominate Singapore’s cyber threat landscape

Phishing and ransomware attacks continued apace in Singapore last year amid signs of improving cyber hygiene Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Manchester University students threatened by ransomware gang

Students and staff members at the University of Manchester are being pressurised by an unnamed ransomware gang Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Nearly quarter of a million malicious websites reported and removed through NCSC service

A suspicious email and text message reporting service in the UK has directly led to a quarter of a million malicious websites being removed Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

ChatGPT is creating a legal and compliance headache for business

ChatGPT’s increased use in the workplace has led many to question its legal and compliance implications for businesses. Experts warn that the software poses major security and copyright risks Continue Reading

By

• Nicholas Fearn

Early June Microsoft outages were result of large-scale DDoS hit

Investigations into recent outages on Microsoft Azure and Outlook services have turned up evidence of a massive distributed denial-of-service attack Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Nakivo adds ransomware scanning and new restore options

Backup maker adds malware scanning with big names in security to immutable backup copy functionality. “Tape’s not dead” either, with restore from the venerable medium now possible Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

UK to contribute up to £25m to Ukraine cyber defences

Prime minister Rishi Sunak announces an expansion to the Ukraine Cyber Programme, with a cash boost of up to £25m over the next two years Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Exploitation of Barracuda ESG appliances linked to Chinese spies

Intelligence from Mandiant links exploitation of a flaw in a subset of Barracuda ESG appliances to a previously untracked China-nexus threat actor Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

NCSC warns over ‘enduring’ LockBit threat

Although its activity volumes have been lower of late, LockBit is still a highly dangerous ransomware gang and is now the subject of a new international cyber advisory Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Clop begins naming alleged MOVEit victims

Clop uploaded details of 12 new victims to its dark web leak site late on 14 June, many of them likely linked to the ongoing MOVEit cyber attack Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Ransomware-stricken Capita to run Action Fraud successor

A £50m deal to replace the Action Fraud service has been handed to PwC and Capita, which is facing investigations over its handling of customer data in a ransomware incident Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Clop’s MOVEit ransom deadline expires

A seven-day deadline set by Clop for victims of its latest attack to contact it to arrange payment passes today Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Cyber attacks against APAC commerce sector surpass 1.1 billion

Retailers, hotels and travel-related organisations in the region saw over a billion cyber attacks last year amid the surge in e-commerce activity and online travel bookings Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Arnold Clark data leak victims prepare legal action

More than 10,000 people who had their data stolen and leaked in a ransomware attack on the Arnold Clark car dealer network have signed up to a group legal action after facing elevated amounts of fraud Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Ofcom data stolen in MOVEit cyber attack

Communications regulator Ofcom says data on employees and regulated communications companies was stolen by the Clop gang Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Progress Software releases patch for second MOVEit Transfer vulnerability

Progress Software releases a patch for a second MOVEit Transfer issue, which was uncovered by third-party security specialist Huntress Security during post-incident code scanning Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Extreme Networks emerges as victim of Clop MOVEit attack

Network equipment and services supplier Extreme Networks has revealed its instance of Progress Software’s MOVEit tool was compromised in the ongoing Clop cyber attack Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Barracuda ESG users told to throw away their hardware

Owners of Barracuda Email Security Gateway appliances are being told that they will need to throw out and replace their kit after it emerged that a patch for a recently disclosed vulnerability had not done the job Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

University of Manchester hit by cyber attack

The University of Manchester has been hit by a cyber attack of an undisclosed nature Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Vulnerability exploitation volumes up over 50% in 2022

Data from Palo Alto Networks’ Unit 42 threat intel specialists reveals insight into the scale of vulnerability exploitation in the wild Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Clop may have been sitting on MOVEit vulnerability for two years

The Clop cyber extortion gang may have been keeping the MOVEit SQL injection vulnerability they used to penetrate the systems of multiple victims secret for two years Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Clop cyber gang claims MOVEit attack and starts harassing victims

The Clop cyber extortion and ransomware operation is demanding organisations pay a ransom to avoid data stolen via an exploited vulnerability in a file transfer product being leaked Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Google launches hacker-backed SME security training scheme

Citing research that shows almost half of SMEs are struggling to recruit cyber security specialists, Google is launching a programme designed to upskill more people to fill thousands of vacant roles Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Victims of MOVEit SQL injection zero-day mount up

The BBC, Boots, and British Airways are among the victims of cyber incidents arising from a recently disclosed vulnerability in the MOVEit file transfer, exploitation of which is spreading fast Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Cyber spotlight falls on boardroom ‘privilege’ as incidents soar

Three quarters of data breaches now involve a significant human element, and the higher up they get in an organisation, the more risks people seem to take, according to Verizon’s annual Data Breach Investigations Report Continue Reading

Why we need advanced malware detection with AI-powered tools

AI-powered cyber security tools have now developed to a point where they are becoming an effective approach to protecting the organisation. Learn how you can benefit from adopting them Continue Reading

By

• Isla Sibanda

Downstream breaches of Capita customers spreading

As many as 90 organisations that used Capita services have now reported data breaches arising from various security incidents at the outsourcer Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Cisco joins growing Manchester cyber security hub

Networking kingpin signs up to Greater Manchester Digital Security Hub to support centre’s work on security resilience and skills Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Bumbling IT security analyst convicted of blackmail offences

A Hertfordshire man has been convicted of blackmail and other offences after piggybacking on an in-progress ransomware attack to try to defraud his employer, but failing to cover his tracks in any meaningful way Continue Reading

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• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Five key steps where there is a risk of fraud investigation

When fraud investigators come knocking, there are some important ways in which management and senior IT professionals can make sure their company is best protected. Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Day and Phil Taylor

Alert over Chinese cyber campaign targeting critical networks

A Chinese threat actor known as Volt Typhoon has been observed infiltrating CNI networks in a cyber espionage campaign, according to intelligence Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Almost all ransomware attacks target backups, says Veeam

Some 93% of ransomware attacks go for backups and most succeed, with 60% of those attacked paying the ransom, according to a Veeam survey Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Cohesity Turing aims AI tools at backup and ransomware

Backup supplier continues to enrich its ecosystem with more artificial intelligence for backup and ransomware, with chat-like reporting functions and new security partners in its alliance Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

How to secure your software supply chain

In this week’s Computer Weekly, our latest buyer’s guide looks at secure coding, and kicks off by examining the challenges of securing your software supply chain. Cyber law enforcement leaders are calling on firms to end the secrecy around ransomware attacks. And we find out how facial recognition technology is being adopted by retailers. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Let’s open up and put an end to secrecy and cover-ups in ransomware attacks

The NCSC and the ICO are calling for organisations to bite the bullet and be more open about cyber security and ransomware incidents, and the community is firmly behind them Continue Reading

Data breaches in Australia on the rise, says OAIC

The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner reports that data breaches rose by 26% in the second half of 2022 Continue Reading

NetApp to promise ransomware warranty payout

NetApp will recover data hit by ransomware or pay a warranty, and has added entry-level SAN arrays and full access to all NetApp software across its hardware families Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Scality pushes anti-ransomware features in Artesca object storage

Object storage specialist announces v2.0 of Artesca, with a heavy focus on functionality that can protect against ransomware such as object locking, sharding, backup to object etc Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Let’s put an end to secrecy and cover-ups in ransomware attacks

The NCSC and the ICO are calling for organisations to bite the bullet and be more open about cyber security and ransomware incidents, and the community is firmly behind them Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

How Splunk is driving security automation

Splunk’s head of security in APAC talks up the company’s efforts to ease the workloads of security analysts amid lower adoption of security automation and analytics in the region Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Australia to shore up cyber and digital capabilities in Budget 2023

Australia is spending more than A$2bn to strengthen cyber resilience, improve digital government services and fuel AI adoption, among other areas, in its latest budget Continue Reading

By

• Stephen Withers

Black Basta ransomware attack to cost Capita over £15m

Exceptional costs arising from the March 2023 Black Basta ransomware attack on the systems of outsourcer Capita will be somewhere between £15m and £20m, the organisation says Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Nebulon aims Tripline at ransomware detection in storage

Tripline claims ransomware detection from samples every 30 seconds and works in conjunction with snapshots to deliver recovery from an attack in four minutes Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

How datacentre operators can fend off cyber attacks

Applying zero-trust principles in the form of strong authentication controls and network segmentation can help datacentre operators to mitigate cyber threats Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Capita pension clients told data may have leaked

Capita has told trustees of some of the pension funds for which it provides outsourced services that their customer data may have been stolen by the Black Basta ransomware operation Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Inside BlackBerry’s cyber security playbook

BlackBerry’s president of cyber security discusses the company’s cyber security strategy and what it is doing to deliver an integrated set of capabilities for enterprises Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Cyber Action Plan for Wales launched

The devolved Welsh government has set out four priorities in an action plan designed to foster cyber resilience, talent and innovation across the country Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Google Cloud seals bug that could have led to data breaches

The Asset Key Thief vulnerability gave rise to multiple potential attack scenarios that could have impacted thousands of Google Cloud users, but has now been safely fixed Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Researchers deal blow to Gootloader gang that supported REvil

Thousands of compromised WordPress blogs have been spreading the Gootloader malware for years, but eSentire’s security research team are turning the tables on the gang that played a key role in REvil ransomware attacks Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor